TOKYO, Nov. 16 - Portraits of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, have been quietly taken down this fall in important institutions in the country's capital, Pyongyang, several diplomats there say.

Analysts are debating the reasons, with explanations that range from a demotion of North Korea's "Dear Leader" to a simple desire to place the portraits in more ornate frames.

In a country where the cult of the Kim family is a primary binding force, people have been sent to prison for failing to dust their leader's portrait or for allowing ink drops to blot his image in a newspaper. A woman who died trying to rescue Kim family portraits from a burning school was elevated by the state-controlled media to national hero.

But according to reports from Pyongyang by the Itar-Tass news agency and an ambassador in the capital, guests at recent Foreign Ministry receptions have seen only portraits of Mr. Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, a former anti-Japanese guerrilla leader who founded North Korea in 1945.

"Only a light rectangular spot on the yellow whitewashed wall and a nail have remained in the place where the second portrait used to be," the Itar-Tass correspondent said of the People's Palace of Culture.

Separately, a European ambassador in Pyongyang has told his country's ambassador in South Korea that he started noticing last month that Kim Jong Il portraits that had been displayed outside some schools and other institutions in Pyongyang were now gone, the Seoul-based ambassador said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

"One possible explanation is some shift of power, a weakening of the position of Dear Leader, who has not been seen in public for some time," the ambassador in Seoul said. "But I wouldn't bet on any explanation."

There has been no official reaction from North Korea to the reports. But a North Korean diplomat in Moscow was quoted Tuesday by Itar-Tass as saying: "This is false information, lies. Can the sun be removed from the sky? It is not possible."

Also on Tuesday, the North's official Korea Central News Agency broke a silence of several days on Mr. Kim's doings and said he had visited a military unit, though it did not say when or where.

A Western aid worker in Pyongyang said by telephone Tuesday that traffic there was normal and that the airport was operating as usual.

"I have been in anywhere from 7 to 10 schools, hospitals and orphanages in the last 10 days, and there were portraits of the father and son in every one," he said of his visits to places outside the capital.

In Tokyo, analysts at Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors the North Korean news media, were mystified.

"To me, it does not look like a coup d'état," said a senior analyst who asked not to be identified. "But somehow, the images have been removed in an orderly way."

In Seoul, a government intelligence analyst reported that in recent days North Korea's state radio had shifted one catch phrase from "Kim Jong Il, ruling according to the Kim Il Sung legacy" to simply "Ruling by Kim Il Sung."

Known for his bouffant hairstyle and idiosyncratically styled beige suits, the 63-year-old Mr. Kim is a rare beneficiary of dynastic succession in the Communist world. As a loyal and ambitious son, he created the personality cult that elevated his father to godlike status in the 1970's. In the 1980's, he started to run the country from behind the scenes, consolidating his power after his father's death in 1994.

But after nearly six decades of Kim clan rule and omnipresent state controls, North Korea lags behind its neighbors. During the mid-1990's, bad weather, the collapse of Soviet-style farming and bureaucratic paralysis combined to create a famine that foreign aid groups estimate killed about two million people.

But without multiparty elections to worry about and a secret police force, the Kim family has been able to lead a luxurious existence, shuttling in Mercedes-Benz convoys between secluded guest houses, and enjoying imported food and wine.

Another Arafat situation? Granted they are both old but given that no medical records are being released in Arafat's case, to at least quell the rumors, it does make me wonder if regime change is being instituted via injection. The world isn't going to miss kimmie if indeed he is dead but....

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